Names and Destiny

            

 

Since reading the Manuscript, I've wondered about the ability to change ones destiny by changing their name.  And after reading the Arabian Nights and Days I realized it's not so much about changing your name, it's about changing your identity altogether.

Ones destiny does not simply transfer with your mind or soul, your identity is imperative as well.  Gamasa al-Bulti was the chief of police until he freed a believing genie named Singam.  Singam accuses Gamasa of being corrupt and Gamasa, after some time, begins to agree saying he is “A murderous robber, protector of criminals, torturer of innocent men.  He had forgotten God until he had been reminded of Him by a genie” (p.43).  And so Gamasa killed the even more corrupt governor, Khalil al-Hamadhani.  When he was arrested, he did not fight or resist, he accepted his fate, for he wanted to die a good man and a good Muslim.  When he was beheaded he expected death, but instead was granted a new body, and a new identity, that of Abdullah the porter.

Abdullah the porter goes to live in the town of Gamasa, watching his own wife and child mourning him.  Eventually he ends up confessing to the crimes of Gamasa al-Bulti as well as the crimes of killing other corrupt men as well.  He is institutionalized and later rescued by Sahloul.  After being rescued, he spends his days under the date tree, with a new identity, as the madman.  He is very devout and wise and gives advice to those who seek it, yet he is not noticed due to his status of being insane.  This man changed his identity three times, each time changing the course of his destiny: “They had shaved his head and beard and he had twice been flogged.  Today there was no such thing as Gamasa, nor even Abdullah.  Today he was without identity, without name, filled with worries… his goal is beyond the cosmos” (pg. 93).

It was his fate to kill the governor as Gamasa, and it was his fate to die.  Gamasa died the day he was beheaded, and Abdullah was born.  It was Abdullah’s destiny to kill more corrupt men in the district, and to later confess.  He was sentenced to eternity in the asylum, and fulfilled that as Abdullah.  When he became the madman, he achieved the destiny of being a devout believer and a good man.  He had to change his identity to achieve that destiny, for Gamasa al-Bulti and Abdullah the porter could not be devout good men due to the evil acts they had committed.  In order for one destiny to reach fruition, a change of identity had to happen, and was possible.

            More support of this can be seen in The Manuscript Found in Saragossa and Little, Big.  When the gypsy chief met Leonor for the first time and told her that he already liked her, she knew that for her to have a new destiny, separate from her life before, she would need a new name.  Leonor was the girl who lived in the convent.  Her new name would allow her to follow an entirely new path, allowing for an entirely new destiny.  

In Little, Big Ariel Hawksquill says, 

“‘Gentlemen, Russell Eigenblick is the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, yes, die alte Barbarossa, reawakened to rule over this strange latter age of his Empire.’…

‘Do you mean to say, Hawksquill,’ said a third, more reasonably, ‘that Russell Eigenblick supposes himself to be this resurrected Emperor, and that…’

‘I have no idea who he supposes himself to be,’ Hawksquill said.  ‘I’m only telling you who he in fact is.’” (p. 346).

It doesn’t matter who one thinks they are, or what one thinks their purpose is.  It only matters what truly is.  The Emperor could have that himself an Emperor penguin, but that would not have changed who he actually was.  This differs from changing names because when Gamasas turned into Abdullah who turned into the madman, his identity changed, not just his name.  When Rebecca turned into Laura, her identity as the daughter of the Sheikh changed.  Russell Eigenblick was the Emperor, with a new name, not a new identity.  One has to change ones identity to change ones destiny, not just their name.